In this work, the palygorskite-based aerogel was used as the carrier of essential oil to prepare high-loading fragrances and achieve long-term controlled release of essential oil. Palygorskite/wood fiber composite aerogels with a high specific surface area, a high porosity and a superior machinability were prepared with palygorskite as a three-dimensional network skeleton and wood fiber as a toughening/ reinforcing material. The loading efficiency of sweet orange essential oil on the aerogels is 96% and the volatile residual oil rate is <5%. The hydrophobic modification can increase the loading efficiency of aerogels on essential oil, thus prolonging the release time of essential oil. The volatilization rate of essential oil follows a three-stage change law of short-term rapid decline, stable rate and slow decline, showing a good speed control ability of composite aerogels on the volatilization of essential oil. The fragrance agent can maintain a constant release rate of 80 mg/h for 27 h at 60 ℃, and the cumulative release time is 31 h when the aerogels volume is 4 cm3. The controlled release rate of essential oil increases with the increase of aerogels volume. The release behavior of essential oil in aerogels follows the Korsmyer-Peppa model, which belongs to the Non-Fickian diffusion.